Scarlett Johansson Awarded $6,800 in Defamation Suit

PARIS, July 5 (UPI)–Scarlett Johansson won a defamation lawsuit she filed against French author Gregoire Delacourt over a book featuring her doppelganger.

The Her actress filed the lawsuit last year against the author and French publisher Jean Claude Lattes saying that the Johansson lookalike character in the book was defamatory.

The character, who is a French model, has two affairs in the book, which is titled The First Thing You Look At.

A French judge agreed that it was defamatory and awarded Johansson about $6,800 in damages and legal costs. She had originally asked for $68,000 because she said the book “fraudulently exploited her name, her image and her celebrity.”

Emmanuelle Allibery, of Jean Claude Lattes publishers, said the company was happy with the outcome of the lawsuit.

“All of Scarlett Johansson’s demands were rejected except one thing that was seen to be an attack in her private life over two relations that she never had,” he said.

Delacourt said he was surprised by Johansson’s reaction to the book and his use of her image.

“I thought she might send me flowers as [the book] was a declaration of love for her, but she didn’t understand it at all,” he said. “It’s a strange paradox — but a very American one.”